888 Holdings Sets Deal to Create US Poker Network

Wednesday, March 13th, 2013 by Ryan

Online poker in the United States? That’s not possible right? Well, there has been some recent news coming out about the potential of a new United States online poker network being created. While there are some online poker networks that allow players from the States to take their action there, this is a very interesting bit of news. Currently you’ll find that the Revolution Gaming Network, and the Merge Gaming Network are two of the largest and most talked about sites that accept US players. The news that was released is that the popular 888 Holdings, which has created 888 Poker and many other sites, is looking like they are going to be on their way to creating a United States online poker network. They have signed a joint venture with an investment firm in the US called Avenue Capital Group in order to do this.

Even better news for United States poker players is that there is even a name set here. The new network is going to be called the All American Poker Network (AAPN), and is going to likely end up working on just a state level to start off. The plan from there is that they are going to begin expanding nationally as soon as the federal legislation has passed to allow online poker throughout the entire country. Basically, 888 Holdings is looking to get ahead of the game and prepare themselves to be one of the first networks in the United States when online poker is allowed to get back into the country, regardless of when that is.

Apparently this news has been rolling along for a bit now, as they have already decided what poker room is going to be the first one on the new network as well. The first network added is going to be Treasure Island, which is based off of the popular famous Las Vegas Strip casino. The two have announced that they would have a partnership back in February (888 and Treasure Island), and while they are still awaiting licenses, it looks like they are going to get them. There is a hearing set on March 21st in front of the Nevada Gaming Commission and things should be good to go from that point moving forward.

The new changes that Nevada has made that are going to allow the expansion of the player bases for their internet poker rooms are definitely great moving forward, which is what makes it seem obvious that 888 is going to likely continue to add skins in multiple states throughout the United States. The legislation has been passed in both Delaware and New Jersey for online poker, so it’s likely that 888 could look to get licensed in those two states in the near future as well.

For those who are curious, 888 Holdings has made another online poker deal in the past in the United States. They are already in a deal with Caesars as well to get a new real money online poker room that is going to be branded by the massively popular World Series of Poker. There’s a chance that this site could end up falling under the AAPN, but it is unknown if that is the plan right now or not. Getting a license in the state of New Jersey should be easier for 888 since they are paired up with Caesars for the online poker room deal.

Currently you’ll find that, as previously mentioned, the largest poker site falling under 888 Holdings is 888Poker.com. They do have quite a few other online poker sites that fall under this network though, and in total they find themselves ranking fifth in terms of total cash game traffic against the rest of the industry. They find themselves behind the massively popular PokerStars, as well as the “rise from the ashes” story of Full Tilt Poker, who was purchased by PokerStars, and also behind PartyPoker and the iPoker Network as well. It’s likely that the network will stay at this spot for the near future, but if they pair up with the AAPN, there’s a chance that it could jump up a bit in the rankings. Obviously we don’t know when the AAPN will even launch though, so that will be something to watch for in the future.